Bodily Autonomy in Fitness and Wellness

You Are a Person in a Process

At the core of a meaningful fitness and wellness journey:

You are the expert on you.

You are a person in the process of life and living.

You'll do your best when you're given what you need, accepted for who you are, and respected in your process of life and living.

On this week's episode of Better Than Fine I'm exploring Bodily Autonomy and how it shows up in the fitness and wellness journey.  Supporting the above truths is the research of Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, the founders of Self Determination Theory (SDT).

Most people hate being told what to do.  In fact, we have three innate human psychological needs for being our best in pursuit of happy, productive lives:

• Autonomy - we get to choose what we want and how to go about it

• Competence - we have the skills or can get what we need to succeed

• Relatedness - what we do and who we are integrate - with ourselves, what we love and care about, and with the world at large

This means we need to have a say in how our pursuit of fitness and wellness unfolds.  It's summed up in one of my favorite coaching concepts:

You are the expert on you. 

As a coach and trainer our most successful clients are the ones who see themselves as the hero on their wellness journey and feel empowered to go on the adventure towards their future self.  

What does this look like?

It starts with the belief that each of us is a person in a process of life and living.  Accepting that you (or your clients/students) are learning and growing.  Mistakes are lessons.  You (or your clients) are not static.

That process should be internally driven not externally controlled.  The ancient Greeks called bodily autonomy "self-law" or "self-governance".  People have higher well-being, satisfaction, flourishing, and overall happiness when they get a say on how they live and go about their goals.  

For yourself: 

• Go inward and get to know yourself

• Learn to respect and defend your boundaries and personal alignment

• Work with practitioners who are similarly aligned

If you're a coach or trainer:

• Focus on educating your clients to grow their autonomy

• Coaching and training relationships should be inter-dependent (not codependency as is often fostered in the current financial system)
  (This point is fully unpacked in my upcoming book From Personal Trainer to Wellness Coach)

• Learn the difference between when you're supporting a client's growth vs telling them what to do.  The former supports autonomy.  The latter is sometimes necessary but should solely be done in support of a client's self-concordant goals